1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an initiator circuit or a driver circuit in an oscillation circuit and particularly to an initiator circuit suited for use in a crystal-controlled oscillator circuit including a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) inverter, especially a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (C-MOS) inverter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oscillator circuits utilizing the complementary MOS technique have been well known as disclosed, for example, by S. S. Eaton, RCA Application Note, IACN 6539 January 1971 pages 192 - 205.
Conventional oscillator circuits having complementary MOS inverter, however, have required several seconds or more for the initiation of oscillation, namely, the driving of oscillation and hence considerable time is lost in assembly, adjustment and test. For reducing such a loss in time, a larger current may be allowed to flow to increase the driving force of the complementary MOS inverter. According to this method, however, the larger current is allowed to flow even after the initiation of oscillation, i.e. in the steady state. Thus, the power consumption becomes undesirably large.
In particular, when an oscillation circuit is used as the standard frequency generator in an electronic wrist watch, there are material requirements of low driving voltage and low power consumption. Therefore, even if the inverter of the oscillation circuit comprises silicon gate complementary MOS elements, the increase in the power consumption becomes a fatal drawback in practical use.